Direct mail consists of sending printed advertisements with associated offers to potential buyers in order to increase sales for particular products. The parties involved may include an advertiser, who provides proposed transactions for specified products and services, an advertising service that compiles that data and develops advertisement (ad) copy containing the proposed transactions, a printing system that receives and prints the ads, and a potential buyer who receives the print ads at a residence or place of business.
Traditional direct mail systems are effective when an advertiser knows that a particular buyer has used direct mail to purchase products in the past. Nevertheless, traditional direct mail systems lack other information regarding potential buyers to reach these potential buyers more effectively.